


Rekindle

by TundrainAfrica



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Feels, F/M, Hange and Levi are exes, Light Angst, Rich Hange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28648374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TundrainAfrica/pseuds/TundrainAfrica
Summary: "I was hoping I wouldn't meet you again,”"Then why did you swipe right?""Because I wanted to meet someone like you... But not you." He added that last part a little to quickly and that had Hange clinging to the hope that maybe he didn't mean it.Levi and Hange find each other again through a dating app and contemplate on their past relationship.
Relationships: Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 24
Kudos: 112
Collections: Tumblr Prompts and Oneshots (Tundrainafrica)





	Rekindle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lizaloveslevihan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizaloveslevihan/gifts).



> Just a birthday piece for one of my first friends in the Levihan Community. Your work and our meta discussions really sparked joy for me these past few months. 
> 
> Happy Birthday Liza!
> 
> Prompt: Levihan as exes who are still very much in love with one another but had to break it off for some reason and after some time they are forced to go to a gathering where they see each other again which leads to some feelings getting reignited
> 
> I took some liberties with the prompt lmao (as always, why am i like dis)

Love can be as hot as the fires that raze through a forest. Love can also be as warm as freshly baked bread on a blustery autumn afternoon.

Hange knew one thing though, although love can be warm in between, it starts cold and ends cold. The cold she had experienced was piercing. It clenched her heart in ways she could have never even imagined before. It was so painful, so chilling that she had almost forgotten how it could have ever been warm in the first place.

The cold never left and Hange had decided to never search for the warmth again. She feared that the next time she let things get a little too far, it might just freeze her solid.

 _But you don’t have to fall in love again._ Hange assured herself. _You don’t have to love someone to marry them._ She found herself faced with the pressure of dating through a ‘casual’ conversation with her mother.

She should have seen it coming. Five years into a PhD straight after masters, she was almost at her 30s yet she was still single.

Being the only child in the Zoe family though, Hange had a duty to her parents. Or so, that was what her mom had explained to her then on the phone. She couldn’t blame her mother for that straightforward conversation. Looking back at it, her mother had been hinting on her desire for grandchildren for a long time.

Soon after the call, Hange did her research on ways to find a partner and had ended up deciding to download a dating application on her phone.

A month later, she was going on her first date.

It was the result of a surprising chain of events. In fact, Hange had not expected to find someone she’d be willing to go on a date with through a dating application. Hange was aware of the worst case scenarios that came with online dating having watched too many Ted Bundy-esque crime documentaries on the topic. Because of that bout of possibly unfounded paranoia, Hange was choosy when swiping on that app. She went through hundreds of profiles during her spare time, only swiping right at five profiles a day on average. She averaged two to three matches a day.

Replying to them was another story. Hange’s dream date was a conversation about potential dissertation topics and metas about daily life over a cozy restaurant dinners. The men had been straightforward, offering pictures of things she did not want to see too early in a relationship and offering to pay for a few hours in a hotel.

The man she had agreed to go out with was different. He did not offer inappropriate pictures at least. He did though offer to pay for an overnight trip to one of the better hotels around town. He offered to pay for the wine and the dinner to go with it. That wasn’t what stood out though, Hange could have paid for that herself with the money her parents give her.

What stood out was his profile picture, a candid photo of a man with a drink on hand. Behind him was what looked like a bar, probably around the area. Hange didn’t know much about bars though so she could not say for herself what bar specifically.

The photo was taken from the side. That side profile was enough though for Hange to note that he had looked incredibly familiar. She had searched for other photos only to find that that was the only one.

 _Just looking for some casual hook ups._ For most other profiles she had swiped right on, that should have been a deal breaker. Hange found herself though a little drawn to the first name and the side profile. She was certain she had unfinished business with him. 

Having his profile right at her fingertips pressured her. Tinder never showed her the same people twice and that was possibly the only chance she might have to talk to him again.

 _If he doesn’t swipe back, it’s a sign that things were never meant to be anyway._ Hange thought to herself, weakly justifying her next move.

**It’s a match!**

And just like that, she didn’t need any verbal reassurance. The screen in front of her exploded in virtual confetti.

It looked like he was interested in something too.

* * *

It was an exchange short of professional. All they had discussed over the application was the place to meet and the room number.

A five star hotel in the center of the city. She had stayed in many before, it wasn’t anything too amazing for her.

 _But if it was him, then this would be our first time dating in a place like this_. She thought to herself, alluding to nostalgic feelings and echoes of conversations from long ago.

As she picked up a key at the lobby and entered the room, she could not help but think, he must have been thinking the same thing. The door opened to a bedroom with a dining table set to the side, and on top of it, a bottle of red wine,

 _Cabernet Sauvignon._ A type Hange recognized a little too well.

_Duck Confit. Tomahawk steak. Biscuits and Caviar._

Hange might have just been assuming but she found herself a little too excited to see a scene that drew heavily from dreams and long term plans exchanged clandestinely many years ago. It could have been a coincidence. Hange though, erred on the side of the dreamer. 

“So it is you.” It was as if he were saying her thoughts out loud, only confirming Hange's first assumption.

Hange got a good look at him the moment he had exited the toilet, halfway through putting his polo over his undershirt. The years were kind to him like they were to all teenage boys. His eyes looked more serious, the lines on his face were contoured so symmetrically, she had unknowingly spent a good few seconds admiring his cheekbones and his worry lines.

And he had an air about him. _An air of confidence._ Hange concluded a second later. Maybe that was why she had failed to recognize him instantly.

The man she knew from more than a decade ago always seemed unsure of himself. Hange surmised that the man in front of her might have hidden that insecurity, behind a poker face and a stoic demeanor. Possibly a wall he had built, having to surround himself with people from a completely different world just to make ends meet.

It was a wall that she had had to break down long ago, brick after brick, having been born one of the outsiders he had aimed to keep out.

 _Did he rebuild that wall?_ Hange asked herself as she watched him fold the cuff of one sleeve. As soon as he had fixed the sleeve, he looked up at her, his chin up high, a stark improvement from the man who had used to avoid her gaze when he talked.

"I was hoping I wouldn't meet you again,” he said as he gave her once over.

"Then why did you swipe right?" Hange asked

"Because I wanted to meet someone like you,” he answered matter-of-factly. “But not you." He added that last part a little to quickly and that had Hange clinging to the hope that maybe he didn't mean it. 

“I didn’t want to meet you either.” Hange wished she meant what she said.

“Do you wanna leave?” he asked, so nonchalantly that Hange couldn’t help but think he wanted her leave.

“No. I don’t. We’re having dinner.” _Then I leave._ Hange added silently herself. She felt her blood boil, the piping hot blood climbing all the way up to her head. Years ago, she would have seen at least a glint of disappointment in his eyes. In his eyes then, she saw a severe lack of emotional investment in anything, an unconcerned look that could only mean he could have easily replaced her.

“Okay then. We’re having dinner,” he said, as if he didn’t just introduce the prospect of leaving a second ago.

When she had been too focused on him a moment ago, she had forgotten about the dinner. As she scanned the table to see the dinner laid out for them, she felt her anger dissipate. She entertained the possibility that maybe he wasn’t a completely different person. Maybe the boy she had known so long ago was still there inside him

“It’s been a while, Levi,” For the first time, she looked him straight in the eyes. As she did she realized, he wasn’t so different. He kept that same undercut. He didn’t grow even an inch since then. Yet, the thing that had made her completely certain that it had been him was the food laid out on the table.

_Does he still remember?_

“I promised you one day I’d treat you to a dinner of tomahawk steak, duck confit, caviar and some high end red wine and here we are.” Levi twisted open the bottle of wine and poured some on the glass nearer to her “So you can tell your parents they can go fuck themselves.”

Hange winced at those words but was quick to recover. She understood that those curses directed towards her parents were very well-deserved. They were still her parents though and Hange felt a natural inclination to defend them. “They’ve seen things okay… among their friends. That’s why they were unsure about….” Hange racked her mind for the right word. “Us.” Regretfully, the word she had wanted to avoid had been the one that had come out of her mouth. Forced to acknowledge that there had been an ‘us’ between them at one point, Hange felt something clench at her chest.

_We did not support you through the best schools for you to date a low life Han. Have a little more class._

_The reason your mother and I are so uncomfortable about the prospect of you dating below your class is because we don’t want money falling into the wrong hands._

_We had friends who married much younger women below their social class. They don't know what to do with the money. The moment they have the power to decide what to do. They sell the properties and squandered the money._ The actors in her parents stories varied, from distant uncles to cousins a few times removed. The pattern remained the same every time.

Hange had always found the stories problematic though. For one, she had not said anything about marrying Levi. It also never did end with anecdotes. Her mother’s adamance only grew. It morphed into personal insults and cruel assumptions about Levi’s background and his mother’s background.

Thief. Son of a whore. Gold digger.

“I don’t care. They’re fucking assholes.” Levi’s curse carried contempt. They were heavy with the weight of every insult Hange’s mother had thrown at him about his background and his sick mother. “I didn’t spend a single penny that wasn’t mine. You know that.”

“How’s your mother?” An attempt at digression. At the same time, she had made her voice a little softer and maybe a little sweeter, hoping that he would understand. She may be her mother’s daughter but they did not share the same views.

“We couldn’t afford to take her abroad for treatment…”

“I’m sorry,” Hange said before he could continue. She could tell the ending to that story in the way he had looked away and in the way his wine glass shook in his hand.

“I worked sixteen hours a day. I split every damn overtime paycheck between school and her meds… What made me lazy?” _Why did your parents call me lazy?_

“I don’t know…” _Because you weren’t making a hundred grand a month. Because you weren’t studying at the best university in the country._

“The philosophy of the ultrarich. If you're not successful you're lazy. If you’re not making them richer, you’re lazy.”

“Did you invite me here just to hurl insults at me? Yes, I concede my parents were assholes. But they’re still my parents.”

“And my mother was my mother but it didn’t stop your parents from…”.

 _Calling her a whore._ It was an easy phrase to mix up and it was at that moment that Levi slurred his words and swayed a little to the side.

Hange would have taken her bag and left if it wasn’t for that. His cheeks were a little flushed. His front of a while ago was faltering. And Hange was certain, he was still as vulnerable as he was years ago. She grabbed the wine bottle for confirmation. It was almost empty.

“I actually believed you were a different person.” Hange shook her head in disbelief.

"I blocked you for a reason." Levi was still trying to keep up appearances.

"And I blocked you back,” Hange said, an attempt to just humor her old flame.

"Then why did you swipe right on me?" By then, Levi was a little more flushed, his eyes were fluttering closed and she realized by then maybe she could be a little more honest.

"You're my type." Hange admitted. Before she even realized what she was doing, she had made her way next to him and helped him out of his seat, just like she did in the old days when he was a little flushed from having drunk a little more than she knew he could handle. As she held him in her arms again, she felt it.

 _You’re my type. You’ve always been my type._ Hange found herself thinking as she helped him to the bed. He was warm to the touch and she found herself laughing at the impression that he had ever been cold.

"You’re not my type...” At that point, Levi’s words were becoming a little too comical. “But for some reason, when I date other women... I think of you.”

 _I think of you._ Hange was about to stand up and walk back to the table when he said it. And just like that, she felt the blood rush to her cheeks. She saw hot red for a second before shaking her head and she found herself unable to move, unable to look away from the boy who had so many years ago made her blood run cold.

 _I thought about it. I love being single. It's the funnest thing in the world. I love not having to deal with the drama._ She had told him long ago when they had gotten a little too close. Close enough to evoke emotions that were worth giving a second thought to. 

_I like being single too._ He had agreed.

Their clashing personalities, their naturally socially awkward demeanors and their glaringly different backgrounds made it all the more difficult.

Choosing to commit is a hard decision. When you commit yourself to someone, you risk losing the opportunity to experience a different type of love. If that person really is the one, then you’re faced with the prospect of never experiencing the chase again, never experiencing the excitement of a developing relationship. That developing relationship manifested in a month long euphoric phase that left Hange and Levi in a perpetual state of disbelief that a feeling so ethereal could exist before it fizzled out into the comfortable yet still subtly magical feeling of mutual trust and companionship between the two.

_But you don't want to lose them to anyone else. So you take that chance._

_Because you realize that something matters more than wanting to relive it again and again._

They gambled and they lost it all. Hange lost the trust, the innocence, and the warmth. Back then, she had believed love to be a lie, having gambled everything into a precarious relationship in precarious circumstances. The cold that had consumed her heart so many years ago only reminded her of that

At that moment though listening to the words as he started to doze off, she felt the warmth as it rushed all the way up to her cheeks and licked her skin just like flames.

She realized then. The fire never burned out. Even when they had put a cover over it a little too quickly after two months of daily arguments over video calls. She had only believed it to be so, having drowned herself in her post grad and her dreams of a PhD.

 _Why did we do it? We didn’t want it to hurt. Who has the time to hurt?_ It was easy to forget it anyway. It had ended after all as a long distance relationship.

Five years ago, her parents had so generously offered to pay for her tuition and fund her research. As long as she picked a university at least an eight hour flight from her hometown. At least an eight hour flight from Levi.

 _We were never able to meet since then._ Her parents never let her go home instead suggesting every year that they go on a family-only vacation elsewhere, 

Levi had protested her decision to stay and focus on her thesis. He had questioned her commitment. Two years into that long distance relationship, they were fighting everyday. Suddenly everything from the time difference to their inability to remember each other’s plans became the catalyst of a new argument. Every single day, it left her seeing red, burning and wanting to release it through punches at pillows, or kicks at the wall.

Ironically though, something that had left both of them so choleric everyday for two straight months had ended with one cold agreement. _We’re not growing in this relationship anymore._

At present, she had already forgotten their last phone call and how it had pushed her to delete his number and block him in every social media account. It was easy to distract herself after though, she had ambitious plans for her dissertation after all.

She soon realized though, she never understood where she had gotten the idea that it had ever turned cold. The agreement was cold, the ending was quick and peaceful. But the feeling was still there and it nagged at her to recall and reflect on their last encounter before they had called it quits.

Maybe if she could have touched him then. Maybe if she had seen his face as they talked. Maybe if she had heard his voice when they had both agreed to cool off permanently.

Maybe then, things could have ended differently.

It dawned on her then. The final decision was made over a few exchanged messages on a train ride on the way to campus. Maybe if she hadn’t been in public, she would have let out a tear and maybe she would have called and begged him to talk it out. 

That final straw was just too ill-timed, Hange had three exams that week. She blocked him on every single account on the way to school and concluded that it was done, the equivalent of putting a lid over the fire they had worked to keep alive.

Many years later, the fire did weaken. But Hange was reminded that it was still there, when she had noticed the smile that had crept up her lips as she watched him sleep, and that one tear that slid down her cheek.

She ate her share of the meal alone, using the peace, the quiet and the view of the sleeping boy in front of her as objects for reflection. After eating her fill, she found herself cleaning it all up and putting Levi’s share on the refrigerator. She knew he’d hate to wake up to a messy room.

As she lay next to him on that one bed, she opened her phone and opened each account one by one looking for the name Levi Ackerman.

 _User not found._ Hange let out a wry laugh as she googled those same accounts in an incognito tab. It turned out he had blocked her in everything too.

She did not have time to think too much of it. By early the next morning, she was awoken by a call from her professor. There was an emergency in the lab and she had to pull out her samples from the oven that was starting to malfunction. She couldn't help but consider it another unfortunate case of bad timing. 

She turned to a sleeping Levi and thought long and hard about it. She knew her ex boyfriend enough to know he would sleep twelve hours after drinking too much the night before.

_What if she called in sick and asked someone else to pick up the samples?_

_What if she woke him up to say a quick goodbye?_

_What if she woke him up and asked him for his number?_

She had grappled with her choices for a while before deciding to leave the choice to him. In the end she left a number, an address and a small note.

_Just in case you want to rekindle it._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it!
> 
> I had a multi chapter story written out in my head lmfao but I'm sure I wouldn't get it done if I started on that now. I'm hoping to at least finish two of my other multi chapter fics before I tackle this story again one day.


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